Republican candidate Fred Thompson makes a campaign stop with his wife and daughter at the Iowa Veterans Home while campaigning for the Iowa Caucus in Marshalltown, Iowa on January 1, 2008. (UPI Photo/Laura Cavanaugh)

Fred Dalton Thompson (born Freddie Dalton Thompson; August 19, 1942), is an American politician, actor, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, and radio host. He served as a Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1994 through 2003.

Thompson served as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board at the United States Department of State, was a member of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Visiting Fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, specializing in national security and intelligence.

As an actor, Thompson has appeared in a large number of movies and television shows. He has frequently portrayed governmental figures. In the final months of his U.S. Senate term in 2002, Thompson joined the cast of the long-running NBC television series Law & Order, playing Manhattan District Attorney Arthur Branch.

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